


3 Times The Elevator Broke, And 1 Time It Didn't

by QueenoftheHobbits



Series: Soft Thighs Series [50]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Mentions Panic Attacks, and other sad stuff based around being trapped in an elevator, but it ends happy., overweight reader, plus size reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 17:16:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8218753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenoftheHobbits/pseuds/QueenoftheHobbits
Summary: There are 3 times you get trapped in a broken elevator with your neighbour and there’s 1 time you’re glad it didn’t break.





	

The first time you got trapped in a broken elevator with your neighbour you’d been too focused on him to worry about freaking out yourself. 

You very rarely talked to your neighbour across the hall. Bucky was a quiet person and you supposed that came with being a war veteran and having to readjust. But he was also very nice and very polite, he would entertain a conversation with you if it cropped up or if he was feeling particularly talkative and you found you quite like having those conversations with him.

What you didn’t really like was being stuck in a broken down elevator with your neighbour who was still suffering from PTSD and really didn’t like being trapped like that. It wasn’t that he scared you, in fact you’d be more scared of the elevator if you weren’t so fixated on Bucky, it was rather a feeling of panic at not knowing how to calm him down. How to stop him from shoving himself in a corner and mumbling under his breath, hands clutching at his hair and what looked to be tears falling. You wanted to help and you didn’t know how.

 _“It might take an hour to get the two of you out of there, is everything alright?”_ It was your landlord’s voice over the emergency system. No, everything was not alright, but looking at Bucky you had a feeling he wouldn’t want anyone to know about this. An hour was enough time for you to figure out how to help him.

“We’re...we’re fine.” You stared across at him and wrecked your brain for something. You didn’t want to set him off further, you didn’t want to treat him like a child...but you didn’t want to leave him in that corner while you sat in another. 

He’d always been such a nice neighbour even if he didn’t talk much. He always complimented you when he saw you’d dressed up, always knocked on your door if he heard crying or if he’d seen you get stood up once again, always reminded you that those guys were stupid. He did a very good job for someone who wasn’t that chatty of putting you at ease, cheering you up, and most of all slowly overtime making you feel more and more confident with your body and your weight. So no. You didn’t want leave him when he was struggling because he wouldn’t have let you alone if the roles were reversed.

“Bucky...” You scooted forward, not enough to get too close or startle him, but enough to make your intentions clear, the crying didn’t stop neither did that heart wrenching mumbling, the type that told you he was reliving something rather than just reassuring himself. 

“It might take an hour for them to get us out...i’m not going anywhere, okay?” The time frame seemed to catch his attention before he reverted back to what he’d been doing before. You never thought you’d be doing this, but part of you realised that your neighbour was probably struggling more than you realised and you cursed not making more of an effort to get to know him. “Bucky, i’m going to come closer to you, okay?” The slightest of nods let you know that he was aware and you finished scooting towards him until your knees were touching his feet.

“I’m going to touch you, okay?” Once again the slightest of nods that you really hoped you weren’t imagining occurred. First it was light pressure on his knee, just a reassuring squeeze and then you made your way around to the side of him and did you best to pull him into what was perhaps the most awkward hug in the history of the world. He didn’t stop mumbling or crying or shaking, but you managed to get his hands away from his hair and have him grip at your softer body instead, at least that way he wouldn’t hurt himself. 

“It’s okay...it’s okay...” You weren’t sure if anything you said was helping, but you continued to mumbling to him, holding him against you and hoping beyond all hope that he was going to wake back up from whatever he was experiencing, that he was going to be okay.

The crying stopped slowly, it was the first thing to go, tears being blinked away, hands tightening around your thick waist, facing pressing further into your shoulder. Then the mumbling stopped, and slowly each little piece of awareness seemed to come back to him, the panic seemed to melt away. Still lying there under the surface but no long to the extent that it had been. You were afraid to speak in case it all came back, you just tightened your hold on him, round cheek pressed into the crown of his head. 

“I’m sorry..” His voice was thick and heavy with tears, and it hurt to hear him apologise for something he didn’t need to, for something that wasn’t his fault. “You don’t need to be...i’m just glad you’re okay.” 

The elevator eventually started moving again, but the most prevalent thing about that day was that you and Bucky went from neighbours to almost friends. You started talking to each other more, spending more time together. He let you help him with his PTSD and you let him in about your insecurities and how you felt some days. 

The second time you got trapped in a broken elevator with Bucky the roles had seemingly been reversed. Rather than being the one who panicked it seemed Bucky had come to terms with the situation, that he felt much calmer...and definitely a lot calmer than you were.

The last time you’d been in this situation (and God seemed to have it out for the two of you because it was always just you two who got stuck in the damn apartment building elevator.) your panic had been subdued by the fact that Bucky was having an episode or whatever you’d liked to call it. He was struggling and any fears you’d had had been put to the wayside to help him..which was great, except now it was your turn to freak out about it. 

The walls felt too enclosed, you felt like you’d be stuck there forever even though you could hear Bucky talking to your landlord and once again receiving an hour as the time frame for getting you out. Your breath felt short, and you kept your eyes squeezed shut trying to imagine you were in a large open room...but nothing could make you believe that. You could feel the cold metal on your back and underneath you drawing you back to where you were.

You didn’t even realise you’d started crying until Bucky spoke, “Hey, hey, it’s okay..” You could hear his steps getting closer and felt him sit down next to you. You opened your eyes and shifted to gaze at him, God, you hated feeling this scared and feeling this weak especially in front of Bucky. 

You felt him gently push you forward and away from the wall before sliding in behind you and pulling back against his chest. Your breathing at this point was short and uneven broken up by crying. You rested heavily against him, arms wrapping around your stomach and trying to anchor you there like you’d done for him. 

For Bucky it was horrific to see you like this, you’d become his friend, you’d helped him through his own panic and he wasn’t sure how to help you. For a moment he was scared you might just stop breathing out of pure panic. All he really thought to do was hold you, give you something to ground yourself with, wrapping your softer body up against his harder one. “It’s okay...i’m here, it’s okay...” and mumbling into your ear. He wasn’t sure if any of it was working, but he knew that he had to do something to help while the two of you waited to get out of the elevator, for it to start working again. 

His voice was what did it, the ability to grab onto the sound and even out your breathing, to start relaxing into his hold. You’d never been more relieved in your life than when your breathing started to calm and the panic started to ebb away. You wondered if that was what Bucky felt like. 

“You okay?” You nodded, leaning back against his shoulder and that’s how the two of you stayed until the elevator moved and the doors opened and your landlord stood there looking rather sheepish. Maybe you should have taken the stairs instead. 

The third time you got stuck in an elevator with Bucky the two of you were surprisingly calm and also very close at this point. It was strange to think that you’d bonded with someone over panic attacks, PTSD episodes and an elevator that only seemed to break when both of you were in it. There was no denying that over the time you’d gotten closer and spent more time with Bucky you’d developed a rather big crush on him, but making a move on a veteran who was still struggling didn’t seem like the best nor the most considerate of things to do so you just left it instead. 

“Why is it always us?” The two of you were sat side by side on the floor, your knee bumping to his as you leant against him. You didn’t mind being stuck with Bucky, at least you liked each other...but you really did hate the fact that it was always you two and no one else. Maybe you were cursed. 

“Fate?”

“You think fate is what? Locking us in elevators until we fall deeply in love?” If it was it was slowly working on your side at least. He was worming into your chest at little bit each time and it was making it very hard to stay in enclosed spaces with him.

“Maybe.” The cheeky smile was a little bit of a shock for you, but it was nice to see, to see Bucky let his guard down around you even if it was while you were locked in an elevator together. It was also very attractive on him. 

You looked away not really knowing what to say...it was awfully cliché, the whole elevator thing...but you found you didn’t really mind. Clichés were at least reliable and also very enjoyable. 

“So... “

“So.”

“I was thinking that...if we ever get out of here-” You cut him off, “You mean when the typical hour is up.” You’d turned your body to face Bucky, your knees resting on the wall.

“When the hour is up and we get out of here...that maybe sometime this week you’d...maybe you’d like to have dinner with me.” Blue eyes flickered over to yours before looking away again and for a moment you were completely stunned because you hadn’t imagined Bucky ever being legitimately interested in dating you. 

“Like a date?”

“Definitely a date.” You thought the confirmation of it being a date would make the nerves better, but it made them worse because that meant your neighbour, your sweet, quiet, struggling neighbour, was actually interested in dating you not simply meeting up in broken down elevators all the time. 

“Okay.” You’d had the brief thought that the elevator would probably break whenever your date was set. 

You were definitely wrong about that. The date had been set for later in the week, Bucky had turned up at your door in a dress shirt (unusual but not unwelcome) and holding a bouquet of flowers that looked like they’d been beaten up a little. The moment you got in the elevator you’d expected it to stop. To be stuck there in a nice dress that clung to all the right parts of your body, standing next to a guy you were supposed to be eating dinner with. But it didn’t stop and you’d let out a relieved sigh when the doors opened and you stepped out.

“Fate, huh?” You rolled your eyes at the man and kept walking, it wasn’t fate. It was simply a coincidence...okay maybe it might have been fate, but if fate wanted you to end up with Bucky you certainly weren’t objecting.


End file.
